Lecturing a Four Year Old About Gender Roles

Some days I consider it a win if the boys are fed, clean and still alive by 6:30 pm.  This was one of those days.  I started out the day with high hopes of cleaning up the toys in the backyard, doing some baking for school lunches, making bread, planting some fall radishes and spinach, and finally cooking up my Cowboy Candy.  I got exactly none of that accomplished.

Instead I played referee, personal chef, laundress, and milk machine.  By this I mean that I broke up about a thousand little arguments between Liam and Seamus, made about a million snacks in response to my least favourite whiny line "Mommy, I'm hungry" (or translated into "Alistair"  - showing me a repeated frog tongue motion while fussing), and doing three loads of laundry (just from TODAY! I was completely caught up in laundry last night!).

We did have fun swinging for a while until Seamus kicked me in the nose.  Ouch!

I was out of energy by the time supper rolled around so I succumbed to Liam's persistent badgering for hot dogs.  As I put them on the BBQ, Seamus looked at me in surprise, "Mama, I didn't know you could start the BBQ.  I thought only men could do that."  Where do kids get this stuff?  I cook most of the meals around here - many on the BBQ.  What followed was a long lecture on gender roles and how yes, women can BBQ just as well as men, from a moderately annoyed Mama.

We then made (moderately) healthy banana splits for dessert.

I burned the first batch of caramel sauce to which Seamus replied, "You should call Grandma.  She can make caramel properly." No lecture here (he is right after all), just a resigned sigh on my part.  I got it right on the second attempt.

At the end of the day, my kids are all still alive and my laundry is done; even if my kitchen is a mess, someone trekked mud all over my previously clean mud room floor, and I am exhausted. 

All I can say is that Ian better come home from fishing all day with something edible, preferably a trout.  Otherwise, I might just have to show the men in my family that in addition to being a great BBQer, I am also a very proficient fisher(wo)man.